Advanced match joining.

[JinxedHatesYou]

Greetings. I am here to adress the issue of joining the matches about to start and already in progress.

Issue #1: joining the match about to start.
It is not rare when captains ready up with skeleton crew.
And those matches that about to start are available for joining as regular ones.

So, a player browses the lobbies and decided to join this one.
He is forced in the crew, a second beforethat the game starts, and he is forced on ship with a little to no idea on which ship he embarked, which weaponry is used on this ship and which crew is currently present on crew. In most cases he have wrong loadout/class/blocked people/swabbieship and therefore is forced to leave.

I suggested it over to feedback@musegames.com, yet this suggestion was simply ignored.
And I will suggest it once again - block the matches for joining as soon as timer before round start hits 10 seconds.
10 seconds is enough to quickly evaluate the situation and leave the match if situation is not satisfactory for joined player.

Issue #2: Joining running match.
Sometimes when there are no matches meeting my demands in lobby, I go looking for active games.
When I see the spot I would probably enjoy playing, I take time to evaluate the ship's loadout and loadout of existant crew to avoid situations of two buffgineers or me bringing the wrong ammuniton.
However, some players are not so caring about ship's efficiency and join on mention spot right away.
Quite often as second gunner/pilot or with improper eqipment.

Currently, I do not see another solution but to jump on ship as soon as you see the spot and only then think if your equipment/class is going to be efficient.

Possible solution: make possible for players willing to join the running match to "reserve" the vacant slot for 10-15 seconds.
During this time player will have time to adjust his equipment, while preventing other "jumpy" players to fill the slot.

[Hoja Lateralus]

#1

Some solution was proposed here https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4660.0.html and sent to the Devs.

#2

This won't happen because of too much of harass possibility, Devs are really paranoid about that. The solution is to just hop-in to the match, then as soon as it starts - exit it, change loadout and re-join the match by choosing it from the list (not by re-join button). "Join crew" option also works this way. If it's a bug - it must be fixed, if it's not - it must be known by every player.

[JinxedHatesYou]

Solution provided in separate thread have too much flaws, which were already pointed out by another players.
Easily may be used for troling. However, if slots are just locked near the mtch start - it will hurt either the players that are about to start the game nor player who can potentially join near the game start.

Your counter-argument is semi-valid. This may be used for trolling, but consider that the most short match I ever participated in was bout 20 minutes long.
I propose 10-15 seconds slot reservation for sake of picking the proper equpment. If this reservation ability may be used only once per match - there is basicly no harm here - player won't be able to keep slot reserved forever.
Possible counter argument about player reserving, joining and only then leaving is invalid - many jumpy players have a tendency of joining the game as second pilot, for example, quickly leave and never come back - thus keeping the slot reserved for 3 minutes cause of current "Abandon match" mechanics.

Which also brings us another problem - early leavers.
I shall update the OP with this issue shortly.


And I am not able to modify OP because whatever.

Issue #3:
Early leavers.

It is common that some people tend to jump in the open slot of running game without even looking at ship.
As result, it may lead to second gunner/pilot on ship or simply joining the ship that early jumper won't enjoy playing.
So, those jumpers leave the game appox. in 10-20 seconds after joining, leaving the slot reserved after themselves for 3 minutes.
Which is, obviously, is not desired by existant on ship crew.

Possible solution:
Remove the slot reservation for players who spent in match less than 10-30 seconds.

Possible counter argument:
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4793.0.html
In answer I would like to say same thing as I said in this thread - buy new PC.

[macmacnick]

Heh, my shortest match was about 8 minutes. Also, there could be some issues with hopping in and removing spots if you were only in for 10-30 seconds, as I personally have done this, gone to switch my loadout, and came back. if this proposed mechanic was to be installed, there would be a high chance that a second powder monkey or the similar could have joined in and taken my spot.

[JinxedHatesYou]

Not if slot reservation is active and you took the proper equip.

[Hoja Lateralus]

Solution provided in separate thread have too much flaws, which were already pointed out by another players.

Please read the whole thread and tell me how you actually want to troll with this thing. If you can - your solution has as potential as the one in the thread.

Regarding #2

(...) if this proposed mechanic was to be installed, there would be a high chance that a second powder monkey or the similar could have joined in and taken my spot.

- pretty much this is your answer.
Even putting aside whether it's good or not - it's not going to happen, Devs work in mysterious ways...

Counter offer:
Let's just make people able to change their equipment in the first 15-25 seconds of the match without exiting it - which is pretty much what most people do now (but they have to exit match and rejoin).

About #3 the compromise solution may be decreasing the time they have reserved - say from 3 minutes to just 2. Well, the game can be pretty unstable and although I understand your argument sometimes it takes around 2-3 minutes to reboot your computer, turn on the game and go back to the match.
Then again, you can check match completion percentage and if it's too low you may just choose not to play with such people because they are likely to leave.